Tragedies of the Virtual Death Game
by theanimelover701
Summary: When the players were trapped within Sword Art Online, everyone was trying to beat the game even it cost their own lives. Kumiko along with her two best friends and a male player she met while playing try their hardest to survive even after the tragedies that have scarred them. I don't own SAO or the characters except for Kumiko, her friends and the boy. KiritoxAsuna OcxOc. Rated T


_November 6th, 2022_, the calendar read. It was the day. The day where the famous Akahiko Kayaba released Sword Art Online. The game designed to work with the nervegear, also designed by Akihiko Kayaba. Kumiko Mizushima along with a few of her friends were waiting in line to get their very own copy of the game.

"Hey Kumi, are you exited for the game?" Ayaka asked her.

"I don't know. I mean it's gonna be like any other VRMMO'S." Kumiko replied. She was a gamer since she never really had anything to do afterschool. When they got there copy of Sword Art Online, all of Kumiko's friends were jumping up and down, screaming with joy.

"I can't wait to play this!" Hanako exclaimed.

"You guys sure seem exited." Kumiko said.

"Of course we are, Kumi! Who wouldn't be?" Ayaka responded to Kumiko. Kumiko smiled and waved at her friends.

"See you in the game, Aya and Hana!" Kumiko exclaimed to her friends as they left. She looked down at her copy of the game and smiled. _This is going to be fun_, she thought as she started to head home. When she got to her house, where the garden was filled with lilies and roses that she planted, she sighed.

"I'm home mom, Miyu." Kumiko said as she entered her house and took off her shoes.

"Onee-chan!" Miyu exclaimed as she ran up to her older sister, her black hair and silver eyes shimmered in the light. _Her eyes are much prettier then my blue eyes I inherited from my dad_, Kumiko thought as she scruffed up her sister's hair.

"You're finally home now. What took you so long?" her mother questioned.

"Waiting for this." Kumiko responded, sharply and blunt, holding out her copy of the game.

"Wasting your money on stupid video games like always." her mother sighed. Kumiko's phone buzzed so she checked it.

"Are you ready to log on?" Ayaka's text said.

Kumiko responded immediately, " Hold on, my mom's bugging me."

"Onee-chan? Are you going to play the game? If you are, I'm going to go play with my toys." Miyu asked. Kumiko nodded.

"Go play your video game and leave me alone." her mom scolded the raven haired. Kumiko left the room and went upstairs to her room. She placed the game into the consel and placed the nervegear on. She lie on her bed and closed her eyes.

"Link start." she said the words to activate the game. She was brought to a white screen with a language option. She chose Japanese and then it asked for username and password which went like this:

Username: Kumiko

Password: KumiVRMMO

There was an option for hair color and she chose blue, her favorite color.

The screen then changed to a black screen and then the words **Welcome to Sword Art Online** appeared. She was put into the town of beginnings and there was a box with a selection of starter weapons. Kumiko picked dual-blades since all other VRMMO'S she has ever played, she would pick dual-blades. Others would get shields and tell her to get one but she doesn't really care about shileds since they were a pain to carry around.

"Kumiko! Over here!" Ayaka called out, standing next to Hanko.

"Hey, guys!" Kumiko shouted as she ran over to them. Ayaka picked a one handed long sword while Hanako chose a dagger.

"Love the hair color you picked!" Hanako exclaimed. Hanako picked blonde hair since yellow was her favorite color while Ayaka picked purple hair.

"Well, blue is my favorite color." Kumiko said as she put her swords away.

"Hey, let's try leveling up a little before the opening ceremony." Hanako suggested.

"Great idea." Kumiko agreed to the suggestion. The three girls went to just outside the town of beginning where there are starter monsters around level 1-5. Ayaka charged at one of the boars while Hanako was swing her dagger around, slicing the boars up. Kumiko would use both of her swords to swing at the boars. They eventually took a break when no more boars were around.

"Kumiko, that was impressive. You're almost as good as the beta testers and they got to play the game before us." Hanako said as she checked the time.

"That's too kind of you." Kumiko responded to her compliment.

"Hey, Hana. What time is it?" Ayaka asked.

"5:25 pm. Why do you ask?" Hanako asked back.

"Damn! I was supposed to log off at 5:00. My mom's gonna get really mad at me." Ayaka panicked.

"Just log off and explain to her that there was an event and you couldn't log off immediately." Kumiko said.

"Ok, I'm gonna have to miss the opening ceremony then." Ayaka said as she got up. She swiped down to access the menu and went to settings. She clicked on it and went down to the logout button. She stood there, still as a rock.

"Aya? What's wrong?" Kumiko asked.

"There's no logout button." Ayaka said.

"What do you mean? It should be right her-" Kumiko saw herself that the logout button was not there._ What is mom and Miyu going to think? What are they going to do?_ Far off in the distant, Kumiko saw a boy with dark hair by himself, standing there, confused about the logout situation.

"What are we going to do?" Hanako's voice filled with concern.

"I don't know. Maybe a Game Master will fix this and when we get back, we can explain to our parents." Kumiko said, not averting her eyes from the boy.

"What the matter?" Ayaka asked Kumiko. She looked back over to the two girls.

"No reason." Kumiko quickly.

"Did Kumiko find a crush?" Hanako asked.

"I can't believe in this situation, you still joke around." Kumiko said as she playfully smacked Hanko on the back.

"I really don't like the starter outfit." Ayaka complained.

"Kumiko, you're lucky yours came with a cloak." Hanako said, trying to make her skirt longer.

"You know that's not going to work right?" Kumiko stated. Suddenly, the bell from the Towns of Beginnings tower rang.

"What the-" Hanako said but before she even finished, all three of them were teleported. They were brought to the square.

"Huh? What just happened?" Kumiko asked her two friends. Neither of them knew what was going on.

"W-What is that?" Ayaka asked as she hugged onto Kumiko.

"Huh? Give me a warning next time." Kumiko said, her blue eyes squinted in focus and she put a hand on Ayaka's head, holding onto to her protectively. Even if they were all the same age, Kumiko acted the most mature. She looked up to see a red **Warning!** sign in the sky and it multiplied into a bunch of red signs, covering the entire sky. _This is stranger then any usual opening ceremony_, Kumiko thought as her eyebrows furrowed. She felt a tug on her cloak and turned around to Hanako, freaking out. She looked around to see the people around her. She spotted a red haired boy with long hair along with a boy dressed in blue._ Strange._ She noticed the boy she saw earlier and then a hood figure with a red cloak was hovering in front of everyone.

"Attention players, welcome to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba. At this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world." the figure said.

"Wait, the Akihiko Kayaba? But what in the world is he doing dressed like some villian?" Kumiko asked, out loud.

" I'm sure you have already noticed that the logout button is missing for the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect in the game. This is a feature of Sword Art Online. You cannot log out of SAO yourselves, and no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the Nervegear will emit a powerful microwave destroying your brain, thus ending your life." he continued.

"WHAT?!" Ayaka yelled "NO! NO!"

"What kind of person would create such a horrible game?" Kumiko said as she hugged onto the younger girl.

"Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning, and have attemmpted to remove NerveGear. As a result, 2 hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world." Kayaba continued.

"213?! That's insane." Hanako said, regaining her confidence.

"As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a Nerve gear being removed is minimal. I hope you will relax and clear the game. But I want you to remember this clearly, there is no longer a method to revive someone in the game. If your HP reaches zero, your avatar will be forever lost. And simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain." he said. _NO!_ Kumiko thought as she imagined her two best friends being killed in the game and in real life.

"Kumi, you can let go." Ayaka said as she struggled to get free.

"No." Kumiko said "I'm not gonna let anyone die. Especially not my friends no, family."

"There is only one means of escape, to complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the floor boss, you advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on floor 100, and you will clear the game." Akihiko said.

"That's impossible. Not even the beta tester have made it that far." Hanko muttered. Kumiko clenched her teeth, infuriated by what the man is saying.

"Finally, I've added a present from me to your inventory. Please see for youselves." he said. Kumiko let go of Ayaka as she went to her inventory, her two friends doing the same.

"A _mirror_?" Kumiko said to her two friends. They both shrugged and got out their mirrors. Kumiko did the same. She looked into it, confused before a blue light surrounded everyone including herself. The next she knew was her two best friends looked like how they did in real life. Ayaka having long, brown hair while Hanako had short black hair. She looked into the mirror again and saw her normally self staring back.

"What's going on?" Hanako asked.

"I don't know." Kumiko said as she tried to spot the boy from earlier. The boy had shaggy, midnight blue hair that fell slightly in his ocean blue eyes. _That's pretty cute. Wait what?!_ Kumiko thought.

"Why in the hell did he do this?" Kumiko cursed and tosssed her mirror on the ground, causing it to shatter into pixilized glass.

"Right now, you're probably wondering, 'Why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do all this?' My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason, to create this world and intervene in it. And now, its complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. Good luck, players." Kayaba said before he disappered and the sky returned back to normal.

"Now what?" Hanako asked.

"Forming a party to survive the game. We will stick together since we all have unique techniques that will help us survive." Kumiko said as she sent party requests to both of her friends and they accepted.

"Let's go to the next town!" Hanako jumped into the air. As they were getting ready to leave, the boy from earlier bumped into Kumiko.

"Hey watch where you're-" Kumiko started but stopped when she saw his eyes.

"I'm sorry." he replied. He left but Kumiko stood there, dazed._ Could I be falling for him? That's ridiculous! I don't even know his name!_ Kumiko though.

"Let's go!" Hanko ran for it.

"Hold up!" Kumiko and Ayaka yelled in unison as they ran towards their chipper friend. This was a start of a deadly adventure where lives would be risked in order to finish the game but the three girls didn't care about the death. All they cared about was beating the game and going back to their parents.

"Mama, what's wrong with Onee-chan?" Miyu asked as she hugged her crying mother.

"I'm so sorry Kumiko. I'm so sorry for never noticing you and acted like I hated you. I hope you make it back alive." her mother pleaded at the unconcious body of Kumiko after the news reported what had happened to the 10,004 players that were in Sword Art Online.

"Mama? Is Onee-chan okay?" Miyu was 10 years old but never knew much due to her not really understanding big words.

"Don't worry, Miyu. She'll come back." her mother hugged onto her younger daughter, not knowing the difficulties that would face her daughter and her friends life while they would fight to their very deaths, finding a way to get back to the families and friends they love.


End file.
